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I don't do code interviews over the phone, but I always do a phone interview. It's just a smell test to see if the person has obviously over-stated their experi

by steverb 12y ago

I don't do code interviews over the phone, but I always do a phone interview. It's just a smell test to see if the person has obviously over-stated their experience, and make sure they have some exposure to the technical things we care about. Once they pass that gate, then we do an interview with our dev team. That way everyone gets a chance to talk to/ hear the candidate and get a feel for if they want to work with them. As part of that interview we do a group coding exercise, usually using Pex4Fun (http://pex4fun.com/default.aspx?language=CSharp&sample=ChallengeFibonacci2 http://pex4fun.com/default.aspx?language=CSharp&sample=Chall...). Basically, we give the interviewee time to start working on it, and if they get stuck, then start white-boarding the problem as a group and solve it together. Again, we want to see how the person works and whether we think they will fit well on the team. After the interview is over, we take a vote and if the result is not a unanimous yes, then we pass. It's tough, but I've had about 80% of interviewees tell me that it's the most fun they've ever had in an interview. So far, we've been very happy with the results.

baggachipz 12y ago
> I've had about 80% of interviewees tell me that it's the most fun they've ever had in an interview. Did you ask them this during/immediately following the interview? That may... skew your results. Then again, if they're offering that insight without being prompted, that's a very good sign. I think the execution of this strategy, and the general tone of the people involved is very important.
- steverb 12y ago
  Yeah, it has always been unprompted. We all try and treat as a fun exercise, occasionally with beer although I've never had an interviewee accept the offer of any drink other than water. I also go out of my way to make sure I communicate with the candidate. We take the voice vote immediately after the interview, and I call the candidate within 24 hours. If there are any no votes I make sure to tell the candidate why, and try and give them pointers for specific areas they would need to improve on to work here and try and point them at resources they can use to improve. We're in a relatively small market, and it pays to be nice to everyone. Anyone we interview I am pretty much guaranteed to run into at some sort of dev event. And just because someone wasn't a good fit today, it doesn't mean they won't be the perfect candidate next year or two years from now.

by steverb 12y ago

baggachipz 12y ago

> I've had about 80% of interviewees tell me that it's the most fun they've ever had in an interview. Did you ask them this during/immediately following the interview? That may... skew your results. Then again, if they're offering that insight without being prompted, that's a very good sign. I think the execution of this strategy, and the general tone of the people involved is very important.

steverb 12y ago
Yeah, it has always been unprompted. We all try and treat as a fun exercise, occasionally with beer although I've never had an interviewee accept the offer of any drink other than water. I also go out of my way to make sure I communicate with the candidate. We take the voice vote immediately after the interview, and I call the candidate within 24 hours. If there are any no votes I make sure to tell the candidate why, and try and give them pointers for specific areas they would need to improve on to work here and try and point them at resources they can use to improve. We're in a relatively small market, and it pays to be nice to everyone. Anyone we interview I am pretty much guaranteed to run into at some sort of dev event. And just because someone wasn't a good fit today, it doesn't mean they won't be the perfect candidate next year or two years from now.